Conversations around end-of-life medical care can be challenging. Consider someone I’ll call Mrs. Jones, an elderly patient with advanced heart disease. When her doctor asked her to discuss the kind of…

The cost of funerals is rising in Australia as the industry becomes more corporatised.
Shutterstock5 décembre 2014

What’s the first thing you are told to do when a loved one dies? If they die in a medical or residential care institution, which happens in more than 85% of cases in Australia, a funeral director is your…

Every year around half a million people die in England. The success of medicine over the past decades has led to a sustained rise in the average human life expectancy: a third of children born today will…

“I want an untamed, beautiful death. So I think we should have a competition in dying, sort of like Halloween costumes,” wrote Anatole Broyard in his pathography, Intoxicated by my Illness, written in…

Contrary to the popular wisdom that it’s a taboo subject, we love discussing death. Dead bodies fascinate us and some of our favourite television shows have been about death and forensic pathology. But…

It’s never easy when someone we’re close to is dying but there are things we can learn from the professionals who deal with this every day.
PA/David Cheskin17 mai 2013

It’s not always easy to talk to someone who is dying. Conversations about future plans and wishes may appear insensitive and fuelled with great pain and distress when it’s somebody we love. For some, not…

Almost 70% of Australians will die in acute care hospitals – the same propportion that wants to die in their homes.
nerissa's ring/Flickr15 novembre 2012

As an intensive care physician I’m increasingly confronted with managing patients who are at the end of their life. Australians need to be aware that the way that they will spend the last few days or weeks…

TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING - We end this series today with an account of one man’s experience of cancer. Bowel Cancer? Me? How could that be? I’ve been so fit throughout my life, eaten porridge, been…

For some, “fighting to the end” provides purpose but it can seem painfully pointless to others.
Ed Cave28 novembre 2011

TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING - We can choose so many of our life experiences, but it seems we can have no say in whether we die in pain or at peace. Today we consider why we don’t have a policy on physician-assisted…

An Advance Directive is a written document that ensures a person’s wishes about the end of their lives are known.
Luke Addison27 novembre 2011

TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING – Can we be forced to live despite our wish to have our lives end at some natural point? What options do we have for having a say in how and when we are to die? Today we look…

TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING – What are the cultural and historical and reasons for not talking about death? Today, we have a philosopher’s perspective on the silence that is seeing so many die without…

Talking to your family about your end-of-life preferences will save them the pain of having to decide for you.
Andy/Flickr23 novembre 2011

TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING – Why don’t we talk about death and dying? A simple albeit difficult conversation could mean the difference between a peaceful and undignified death for individuals, between…

Patients want their doctor to tell them the truth.
Michal Porebiak.22 novembre 2011

TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING – Why is it we don’t talk about the greatest inevitability in our lives? We explore the consequences of this silence in this series, today considering the issue from an oncologist’s…

Around 70% of Australians would like to die at home but over half will eventually die undignified and painful deaths in hospitals.
Mark Hillary21 novembre 2011

TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING - Why is it we don’t talk about the greatest inevitability in our lives? Why don’t we talk about death and dying? Today we hear from a professor of intensive care, who looks…

The Australian government vigorously censors information about peaceful ways of dying even though we have access to violent means of ending life.
Alex @ Faraway20 novembre 2011

TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING - Why don’t we talk about death and dying? We can choose so many of our life experiences, but it seems we can have no say in whether we die in pain or at peace. Today we look…